Friday, June 30, 2006

Panda didn't get to go, but he wanted his picture on the blog. Andy's party? No, it was a Murphies birthday party for Grandma, who is 86, Jim, who is 56, and Judy, who is 49. Above, the obligatory music. Mom Michelle and baby Samantha. Motherhood suits Michelle, and Samantha is a doll. The siblings with their beloved Mother. Sorry, Claire, loaded the wrong picture. The spouses. Somebody is missing but I can't remember who it is. Michelle and Adam, who is delightful. Easy-going and unpretentious. Uncle Don captures the attention of three generations of Murphy women. Proud Grandma and Grampa. Pat has three grandchildren. The rest of us are still waiting. Sorry I left out the Deturcks, always a welcome addition to a Murphy party, but I can't get blogger to upload anymore pics.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Mom and I left the party in Amherst at about 9PM. It had been a worry-free reprieve from the rain we had left behind. Sunny and Breezy. We ran into the first drops between Cobleskill and Oneonta, and it was soon a steady rain. Getting to Morris was uneventful, though it was obvious that there was a lot of water around. New Berlin was another matter. We were able to squeeze through the middle of the street above town. Occasional emergency vehicles went by, and the rare passenger car. The road to Columbus had numerous flares and areas where water was running across the road. We took the last corner into Columbus and were greeted with the sight of volunteer firefighters and people (Families with kids in their arms) in the road, flares, and a river of water running down through the houses on the west side of the street. Up ahead at the corner the water was gushing across the road, and we were advised by a fine young firefighter who resembled Newt from Lonesome Dove that we should turn back to NB and take the county route into Norwich. It was a mess, but passable.

Nothing catastrophic here, but water is everywhere. Jeremy took good care of the cows, and while they suffered out in the rain, there were no casualties. The rain finally quit mid-morning, and the cows went back outside into a lane that is wet and eroded, and pastures that are swampy.

I'm glad I wasn't here during the previous day. The anxiety would have killed me.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Double-click to enlarge this picture from today's Boston Globe of New Age revellers in England, celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge, and check out the boy in the bottom-center foreground. Besides "I can't believe Mum made me bring this bloody tambourine," what is he thinking?

Apparently, there were a number of you looking for me on Sunday, hoping to celebrate Fathers Day with me. Well, I pretty much stagger from one "special day" to the next, never remembering whom we should be honoring this time. Mom took advantage of my weakness, telling me it was, of all things, Father-In-Law Day, and that we had to go to Stanfordville so I could be with my FIL. Not long after arriving I discovered the truth. I managed to have a good time anyway. The lesson is trust, but verify.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

People who don't want to bring another child into this terrible world forget that someone (often two people!) brought _them _ in. If you really think the world is overpopulated the only honorable thing to do is to find a way to leave it.

Friday, June 09, 2006

"Everybody is so focused on the new powerlines and what the President is doing. We have a bigger issue at hand. Jack Bauer is on a boat to Shanghai and we're just sitting here doing nothing."Man from Norwich

As Josh and I grew older we sometimes, as kids are wont to do, bristled at my Dad’s tendency to tell us things we felt we didn’t need to hear or stuff we thought we already knew. “I know Dad!” became a reflexive response from Josh and me, often to our peril.

One time, when I was in high school, I was eating something with hot sauce in the kitchen. By accident, I got some on my fingers and then managed to rub the Tabasco into my eye. The stinging began almost immediately and I ran to the bathroom and started flushing my eye with water from the tap. My dad walked by the open bathroom door and saw me. He came up to me and asked what was wrong. In short spurts between splashes of water, I told him, “I…rubbed…hot…sauce…in-in-in… muh-my eye.”

My Dad paused for a moment and then in that dry, razor-like pitch-perfect monotone said, “Damn. I could kick myself for not telling you not to rub hot sauce in your eye.”

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Hahaha, oops. We are idiots. We were supposed to fold the tarp under the tent instead of letting it collect water. We woke up on a water bed. THere was water inside the tent too. Attacked on both sides!

All the RV people were laughing at us. Silly college students and their tents. And wet stuff.

Doesn't this look like a subaru commercial?

Competition. Very nervous. I don't know if anna is kidding or not with that face.

"There have been two games all season in the major leagues, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, in which a team trailing with two outs and no one on base in their last at-bat has rallied to win. On each occasion, the Red Sox were the winners and Youkilis was involved. On April 17, Youkilis beat out a two-out infield hit and scored on Mark Loretta's walkoff home run on Patriots Day against the Mariners. Friday night, Mike Lowell, Jones's teammate a year ago with the Florida Marlins, lined a two-out single and Youkilis, who was still in the minor leagues when Jones was in the Sox bullpen in 2003, followed with a home run."

Friday, June 02, 2006

Luke won a TANYS award for his role as Pip in "Great Expectations." I don't know how long the Mid-York Weekly will leave the article up, so in addition to the link, here's the article and picture. Congratulations, Luke!

SECS Drama Club Receives Merit Awards

Thu, Jun 1, 2006

Pictured are Luke Murphy and Lauren Mettler, two of the TANYS award recipients, performing in Great Expectations.

Sherburne-Earlville Drama Club received notification that they are recipients of four Theatre Association of New York State (TANYS) Roving Adjudicator Merit Awards following adjudication of their production of Great Expectations, performed on April 28 & 29 at the S-E High School Auditorium. Recognized were Luke Murphy as Pip, Lauren Mettler as Estella, Ellen Fagan as Camilla and Adrian Enscoe as Herbert Pocket who received awards for Meritorious Achievement in Acting.

"The Sherburne-Earlville Drama Club under the direction of Colleen Law-Tefft brought this classic novel to the stage providing its audiences with an entertaining evening and a number of very engaging and compelling theatrical moments." said TANYS adjudicator, Paul Nelson from Olean, NY.

The students recognized were only four out of a cast and crew of 32 plus students who worked extremely hard to present this production, which presented many technical, as well as acting challenges. "They far exceeded my expectations," said director, Colleen Law-Tefft, "I am proud of all of them and what they have accomplished!"

Formal presentations of these awards will be held on Saturday, November 18th, during the TANYS Festival Awards Banquet in Glens Falls, NY as part of the 2006 TANYS Festival which runs Friday through Sunday, November 17, 18, 19.

The Sherburne-Earlville Drama Club has had a busy year. In the fall they produced an evening of one-act plays (13 in all), which was also adjudicated by TANYS. One of the shows, Chicken Wings, won merit awards (Adrian Enscoe for performance and Justin Utegg for student direction). They were also honored with an invitation to perform at the TANYS Festival in November as the only high school organization. There, both Adrian and Justin were recognized again with awards. In January 2006, several students attended the NYSTEA (New York State Theatre Education Association) Student Conference in Callicoon, NY at the Villa Roma Resort & Conference Center, where they were able to take workshops from professionals in the theatre world on a large variety of topics from Improvisation to Swing Dance to Audition Techniques, as well as workshops on the technical side of theatre. In March the Drama Club traveled to the Michael Harms Theatre Festival in Syracuse, NY where they performed two one-act plays (The Turnover and Chicken Wings) from their fall production. This garnered them performance awards for Adrian Enscoe and Josh Ayers, a directing award for Justin Utegg, and a technical theatre scholarship for Jake von Mechow. They finished their year on a high note with a successful spring production of Great Expectations, which brought them record attendance.